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Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Dick Smith doesn't like New Zealand beetroot in a can!

I thought that when I heard ‘the’ Dick Smith on the radio this morning, bemoaning the fact that New Zealand was responsible for the demise of the Beetroot’ farmers in Australia and that Heinz had shifted their production of beetroot to NZ, causing the loss of many jobs; both in the canning industry and for the farmers who grew the beetroot.

For a start, I didn’t know there was a ‘dick Smith.’ I had always thought it was like Jenny Craig; if there was a real person they had long departed. I now stand corrected.

Dick went on to claim that New Zealand beetroot doesn’t taste as good as the Australian product. I would have to conduct a ‘blind test’ to work that one out. He also claimed that New Zealand farmers would get their comeuppance when Heinz put the same pressure that was purported to have been placed re pricing on Australian farmers. He has a point there. Why would Heinz give a stuff about Australian farmers (and possibly NZ ones, next) when it all comes down to competiveness and profit margins. I guess ‘they will shift to China like everything else’ is what he is saying.

Maybe NZ and Aussie should work together on these issues. We do not want to be pushing Aussies out of jobs and the same should be true for them, re NZ. Unfortunately the real world of ‘global markets’ doesn’t operate like that.

So, is this another case of ‘sour grapes,’ something akin to the Aussie dude who questioned the quality of our NZ White wines? NO, I don’t think so. Dickey boy has a point, other than the one he made about ‘taste.’ Global marketing is what really drives these moves and the swings-and-round-abouts may well come back and bite us in our collective bums.